Tango in the Desert | Best-laid plans of mice and… Gravity (pt.2)
6.2~ Navigations: The fear of doing it wrong
The predictability of the flow
I used to think la ronda (the social dance floor) was mercurial… a shapeshifting, chaotic mass of bodies moving off the music where at any moment there could be a collision. But la ronda is not mercurial by its definition of ‘subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind.’ Since 2013, when I experienced dancing in Europe at encuentros where the dancers were actually harmonizing movements to the music, my opinion changed forever and I made a lot of long-lasting friendships. The ronda is a constant. It is the amalgamation of the energy of everyone present. It wishes to flow and harmonize. If we try to navigate dancing our limiting Tango sequences outside of the music and harmony of the whole… it will feel restrictive and chaotic. However, there’s an inherent flow with predictability, almost like in chess, in la ronda when all of the dancers are dancing with the music. The music has patterns, structure, in each measure (compás) and in each phrase (frase). I love how cómpas means both a musical measure and also a navigational compass. This is why I named my foundations classes: Beginnings | Compás.
If we allow the music to drive our movements we begin to intuitively have a sense of where space may open and where other dancers around us may move. It becomes similar to how jazz musicians have a sense where, musically, each other will go with the music. The music does tell us when to walk and when to turn. I remember milongueros asking me “por qué los yanquis giran tanto cuando la música manda ‘ni al pedo girás!”? Why do you Yanks turn (make circles) so much when the music is telling you ‘not even if you are plastered drunk should you turn!’? Yanquis (sounds almost like “junkies” in the Argentine accent) is how most people in Argentina I lived among delineated folk from the USA, since we are all “Americans” from Tierra del Fuego all the way up to the northern seas of Canada. It’s all “the Americas.” So to distinguish regions, I was a yanquis (yankee), even though I’m a Phillies fan (baseball humor). One of the most common questions I was asked by milongueros and milongueras was: “por qué los yanquis giran tanto? Giran, giran, giran (why do the yanks turn so much? Always spinning around and around and around?)” They would make similar gestures with their hands like an out of control merry-go-round. They didn’t understand all the spinning when the music, to them, was saying: “Walk! Don’t even think of spinning!” It was perplexing to them. “Ni al pedo voy a girar cuando la música manda que caminamos! (not even plastered-drunk would I spin when the music is clearly flowing linearly!)” I lost count of how many asked me in the milongas of Buenos Aires. I luckily had focused more on la caminata (the walk) and had more tools to flow with them in las rondas.
Perhaps this intuition we may gain is the hive mentality that we humans sometimes ignore as we subscribe to the illusory idea that we are singular individuals. Maybe. I don’t care much for being an individual, but rather to be myself while being a healthy part of my community. I feel a lot of freedom in this. I don’t feel restricted in the least. I quite enjoy the idea of equilibrium and helping balance the flow for the whole. Never once have I felt restricted in expressing the dance in this mindset.
How may we harmonize?
By knowing our instrument — our own bodies. By hearing others, sensing their ondas (vibes) and listening for the melodic rhythms — the current that is the music. If one person starts singing out their own solos, showing off or completely ignoring that there is music, then the others around them get pulled out of harmony. The sense of togetherness – sharing space – is strained. The music is telling us when to girar (spin/turn) and when to caminar (walk)… if we listen!
La ronda is the hive, the music of the tanda (the social collective agreement) sets the current for the smooth movements of the dancers together. In the tanda, etymologically meaning “a social collective agreement”1, all those dancing are agreeing to dance with their partner – and everyone else on la pista (the dance floor) – to this particular grouping of songs by a particular orchestra.
If we only learn steps, then it will be improbable there will be space or ability to complete those sequences in a moving ronda. The music does not care for sequences. La ronda is not impressed by sequences. The dancers around us are not enthused by sequences out of sync with the music. No one who understands Tango will be admiring anyone performing a sequence, especially if it is disrupting others and off music.
The most admirable dancers I have ever witnessed — the ones embodying the music and respecting la ronda – which is respecting all the humans also sharing the floor — all had these qualities in common: they gave space, they adapted to space, they flowed in their space and they danced to the music. They danced to the music. They all danced to the music which means even if one pair is following the piano, another the bandoneon, perhaps another is melodically flowing with the cantante (singer), and another is marking rhythmically with the bandoneon… they can all still harmonize because they are listening and sharing the commonalities of space, floor and the music. For them there was no sequence. I don’t recall watching any of these gran bailarines de la pista (great social dancers in social milongas) perform figures. They understood their instrument. I appreciated and admired the gran milongueros who were immune to the delusions of grandeur or posturing. If they did a little showboating it was in good humor and well within the flow and safety of la ronda. These were fantastic moments and usually encouraged banter between spectating friends and the milonguero/as dancing. Tango was alive and living. They attended to the well-being of their partners and those around them. They gave more space to pairs who may be struggling. They kept la ronda moving. It did not matter if their space was ebbing or flowing because they were in equilibrium. They had gravity and gravitas. They knew where they were and how to move effortlessly into the space opening up for them. This is what I observed with the best of dancers I was lucky enough to get to know and learn from and witness: Juan Lencina, Monica Paz, El Chino Perico, El Chiche, El Nene Masci to name a few.
There are no “mistakes,” only the prisons of tension.
Setting aside the social agreements of dancing socially in a milonga, let’s talk about we as individuals and what we can bring as dancers to each moment. At the studio in late August, while I was trying to finish the 9th draft of The Bull of Doubt (an article still yet to publish), quite a few dancers were brave enough to express their fears and concerns for making mistakes. Even though I say in every class that “mistakes” are welcome, even blessings in Tango, I know this is a hard concept for a lot of us in our own life experiences and how we have adapted to life. I try to remind everyone that the only “mistake” we can make in Tango is to carry tension - worry - because this becomes a weight our partners will have to burden with us. At the moment we are just talking about the context of movement, and not the social setting agreements. Mistakes will happen, but our best plan is to allow the body to move and shed doubt, shake off worry, and just do the best we can in the moment.
I try to remind everyone in classes that the dance is not a native language to any of us on this planet. Some of us will be born in closer proximity to it, within a cultural epicenter that will make it more readily accessible; however, like all art, it is accessible to any human who seeks it. So if we view Tango as a language we are all learning we can forgive any grammatical (technique) shortcomings and I am sure most of us will agree that as long as we communicate with curiosity, generosity and soul we will have fun understanding and following each other’s side of the conversation.
"No mistakes in the tango, darling, not like life. It’s simple. That’s what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, get all tangled up, just tango on." - Al Pacino ( Scent Of A Woman2 )
Even if this movie scene isn’t quite the social Tango I seek and love, it was still two souls enjoying a moment. The struggle of dusting ourselves off and picking ourselves back up to carry on is deeply rooted in this idea of vulnerability. We tried. We “failed.” We had the courage to keep going. Be vulnerable to make mistakes, do our best, be in the moment and allow ourselves to be felt unbridled, untethered, unrestricted… give!
This fear of “doing it wrong,” is very common. It can paralyze a dancer. Once in our heads – when we are thinking too much with our brains – it is very difficult to relax. Since Gravity is not us, but external, we can remove our egos, our fears from the situation and it becomes more like asking a friend to help us. The floor is also our friend. It is a constant, depending on the venue, beneath our feet. Why not surrender to our best selves, the present, the moment. Surrender to the idea at hand, when realizing, and make it live! Surrender to Gravity! Surrender to this concept of having NO plan as a navigator… be in the moment, adapt, flow. Let’s have fun discovering this new language and see where the conversation leads us, equally and together.
Harmonizing doesn't mean we sing the same notes exactly at the same time.
Music would be boring to listen to if it were all the same note being played at the same time by all of the musical instruments and voices. Same as in the dance. If we allow gravity to connect us… AND OUR FREE LEG… to the floor (if we are holding our free leg off the floor it is no longer free – it is a prisoner of tension) then we feel the subtle shifts in equilibrium that allow musical cambios de peso (exchanges of weight) and the exchanging of systems (parallel and crossed). We begin to feel more connected, of being in an inclusive current, even when we are in a pause. Like river reeds, juncos, we can still flow in the music in a pause.
The gravity of doing something wrong… let it go. I love “mistakes” when there is no tension. It is like hanging out with friends and one person mishears someone and says:
“Wait, did you just say ‘dingo’?!”
“No!? I said ‘don’t you know,’ but that is hilarious… I wish I had said ‘dingo’.”
“Oh, I am sorry, I thought you said ‘and there it was, dingo!’”
“I’m glad you heard that, dingo!”
And now you have an inside joke to share and take with you. Something similar to the above happened in Liverpool with my mate, Jayne (a boss artist and dear friend of mine), when we were talking with a neighbor of hers who must of mistook the local saying “dey do do da’ don’ dey do (they do do that don’t they, though)” into “dingo.” It took Jayne a day to realize why the neighbor kept saying “dingo.” Now Jayne and I have “dingo” in our language. Tango is like this for me. It is way more fun when moments like this arise in the dance. No pasa nada (no worries, let’s keep going). Go with the flow and free Gravity to do its job enriching our embraces and connections with the floor.
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Tanda - there are several origins believed to have culminated into Tango’s use of this word. One that I found interesting was:
Etymology. Borrowed from Arabic تَنْظِيم (tanẓīm, “arrangement”). The modern singular would represent a back-formation from an earlier plural *tàndens.
tāṇḍā (तांडा).—m A train or line (as of cattle, ants &c.): also a troop, body, party, company more gen. Source: DDSA: The Aryabhusan school dictionary, Marathi-English
The link below direction to a great resource, El-Recodo, is a useful reference to the structure a DJ will use to present tandas during a milonga. A tanda, in short, is a collection of songs (3-4) one agrees to dance with another person. I like to think of it also as a collective agreement to dance to the music with everyone also dancing in the social ronda.
Scene from Scent of a Woman. The actual dancing scene is… well… Hollywood.
"I am sure most of us will agree that as long as we communicate with curiosity, generosity and soul we will have fun understanding and following each other’s side of the conversation." This, right here, all the way home. Hope to see you this weekend, amigo.